Increased use of drones for policing

[Rowe992]

Do you support the use of drones for policing? A number a countries have started to implement drones as part of the police operational equipment. Do you support this move or will it be too dangerous for civilians and air traffic?

 

[Colebra]

I don't think there's an issue with air traffic, since drones don't fly in the same air space.
Drones might go as high as 11,000 feet. Commercial planes are flying 35,000 feet high.
If anyone has better grasp of the numbers, please feel free to jump in here. But there's a big difference, right?

The issue with drones is the same with Online Security. Privacy, right?
When are you abusing the necessary use of technology, not to catch the bad guys, but to spy on people?

I don't think that there is much the ordinary person can do though...

 

[crimsonghost747]

I don't think there's an issue with air traffic, since drones don't fly in the same air space.
Drones might go as high as 11,000 feet. Commercial planes are flying 35,000 feet high.
If anyone has better grasp of the numbers, please feel free to jump in here. But there's a big difference, right?

There are drones that can and do certainly fly at similar altitudes. Your numbers for commercial planes seem quite spot on, I always look at the kilometer version which is slightly above 10km so yeah, about 35k feet. Now most drones fly far below this but there are ones, such as the MQ-9 Reaper, that are even designed to "loiter" around at very high altitudes.

For police use I think smaller drones would be the answer and those wouldn't really interfere with other aviation as they won't go higher than a couple km. I definitely see drones as a good replacement for helicopters.

 

[Colebra]

I definitely see drones as a good replacement for helicopters.

What kind of applications do you mean?
I would imagine that drones will get smaller, and smaller, and smaller, to the point where you can't hardly see them...
Sadly, I can also envision civil drones being used for terrorist attacks....

 

[randomrules]

Humm. Airliners don't consistently fly at 35,oooft do they? I mean, they have to take off and land. Also, there is a host of smaller private aircraft that fly within the limits of drones.

Aside from that fact, I think this is just part of the continued militarisation of the Police. I would rather civilian forces were not para-military.

 

[CivilDefense]

I don't necessarily see anything wrong with it. Police had patrolled in fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters for generations, so it makes sense to adapt this technology to policing. Provided, of course, it is done safely and that the rights of the citizenry are protected.

 

[blur92]

I don't think there's an issue with air traffic, since drones don't fly in the same air space.
Drones might go as high as 11,000 feet. Commercial planes are flying 35,000 feet high.
If anyone has better grasp of the numbers, please feel free to jump in here. But there's a big difference, right?

The issue with drones is the same with Online Security. Privacy, right?
When are you abusing the necessary use of technology, not to catch the bad guys, but to spy on people?

I don't think that there is much the ordinary person can do though...

Privacy is definitely an issue in this kind of situation. I imagine this will come into the spotlight sometime within the next few years; I am talking about on the same level of online security. It may be touched on in articles, but it has not hit social networks to a high degree just yet.

Maybe abusing the necessary use of technology is carried out by bad guys.

 

[crimsonghost747]

What kind of applications do you mean?
I would imagine that drones will get smaller, and smaller, and smaller, to the point where you can't hardly see them...
Sadly, I can also envision civil drones being used for terrorist attacks....

Well as far as I know, generally police use helicopters mainly to have "eyes on the sky". To see things from another perspective and to follow suspects etc. A drone would be much more suitable for these kind of scenarios as they could hover high up without even being noticed while still relaying high quality video for extended periods of time.

 

[tipoywizard]

I think drone is policing is good as long as it will help fight crime without sacrificing the security and privacy of civilians. Drone are very effecient in surveillance because they are highly effective and somewhat cheap.However to make its implementation effective a clear implementing rules and regulation shoul be set up first.

 

[goldenmaine]

Drones are beginning to be used immensely nowadays, particularly in media coverage, military, and as you said in policing. I guess it wouldn't harm to use them as long as certain limitations are set before the implementation of using them. Privacy is a major concern for civilians, since drones can be deployed anywhere and used to spy. It has its advantages too, like survey and monitor large areas and detect any activity in a wide arrange and also reach certain areas that are inaccessible. It has both advantages and disadvantages, but a proper implementation would be ideal for it to be successful.